This invention relates to a vending machine capable of vending an article by either cash or card.
A minimum unit of money amount digit which can be handled in money amount data processings in a vending machine generally is a money amount digit of a minimum denomination coin which can be handled by this vending machine, e.g., typically 10 yen in Japanese currency.
In other words, in prior art vending machines, a processing of money amount data less then 10 yen cannot be performed.
On the other hand, there has been proposed a vending machine in which a deferred payment type card can be used (e.g., Japanese Preliminary Patent Publication No. 52-28396). In such vending machine, money amount data of a card must be handled with a processing device which is originally adapted for handling coins and, as a result, minimum unit of money amount data of a card is obliged to be the money amount digit of the minimum denomination coin which can be handled, i.e., 10 yen.
There is, however, no such limitation in the minimum unit in writable money amount data of the card itself but money amount data to the unit of 1 yen can be written according to the specification of the card. An advantageous feature of the card type vending machine resides in that a discount amount in vending by using a card can be set even to a very small amount of 1 yen unit by processing money amount data on the basis of 1 yen unit.
In the prior art coin-card use type vending machine, however, restriction is imposed by the money amount data handling structure of the processing device adapted to handle coins so that the minimum unit of money amount data of the card cannot be less than the money amount digit of the minimum denomination coin which can be handled by the processing device. Hence, it is not possible in this vending machine to set a very small discount amount based on, e.g., 1 yen unit.
If a circuit for judging whether vending is possible or not on the basis of money amount data of a card is constructed separately and in a different manner from a circuit for judging whether vending is possible or not on the basis of money amount data of coins, the minimum unit of money amount data of the card can be set as desired without being limited by the money amount digit of the minimum denomination coin so that a discount amount can be set to a small amount. Such provision of two separate vend judgment circuits will however require a drastic change in the control system of the entire vending machine and the manner of transmitting data between a vend control circuit side and a coin control circuit side. This change is apparently cumbersome and costly.